


The guy I’m in love with

by RobinWritesChirps



Category: Nightmare Time (Team StarKid), The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27440323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinWritesChirps/pseuds/RobinWritesChirps
Summary: Jenny invites herself at Teddy’s to spend a few hours together when things take a sharp turn for the better - though not without effort.What could have happened on October 17, 2004.
Relationships: Ted/Jenny
Comments: 16
Kudos: 13





	The guy I’m in love with

Jenny knocked at his door with a pack of artisan beer in her hand, a bag of pot in her pocket, and a grin at her pretty, pretty lips.

"Happy Halloween!"

Teddy was in a daze and he stood there staring blankly till her lips quirked into more of a teasing smirk and he caught himself at it. He shook his head, still disbelieving, but Jenny took a small step closer which he matched backwards. She cocked her head to the side.

"So, are you gonna let me in?"

"Yeah!" He said and his too loud voice cracked in a high pitch and made him wince. "Sure, erm, come on in!"

The next moment was a flurry of Teddy trying to hide that he was frantically putting order into his small apartment and Jenny kindly granting him the undeserved favor of pretending she did not notice. Dirty clothes littering the floor, cans of pop and a few bottles of harder stuff, Teddy had never been much good at keep the place orderly. He had never needed to, not when company was rare and never of the feminine type. Jenny had a way to be bolder than even him − he had not expected her to seek out time with him. And why would she? A slob of a pathetic loser, that was all he was. This was nothing short of an October miracle.

"Sorry, sorry, the place is… is something… Fuck…"

She giggled and Teddy’s heart and ears twinkled with joy at the sound, clear, pure and innocent. Jenny was all the good things in the world, and she was in his apartment. Why was she in his apartment? He rubbed his forehead, which was sweaty under the back of his hand, and tried to think clearly.

"So did you wanna… How can I… help?"

 _Fucking tech support now?_ He chided himself. But Jenny sat on the couch − the dirty couch where he had spilled some coke just earlier in the afternoon, where he had jacked off twice today thinking about the very same Jenny now sitting on it. He realized with panic that the tissues still laid bunched up in front of the coffee table and gave a small kick to push them under the couch as he sat with her.

"I thought we’d hang out," she said. She opened the pack of beer and offered him a bottle. "Why not?"

The screen was still paused on his game and she looked at it with interest as she took a sip of her beer. There was always such grace in every gesture of hers, an elegance that could only come from within, nothing she had been taught.

"What were you playing?”

"Oh, er, I can turn it off."

She smiled and touched his arm and the contact burned through Ted's skin almost painfully, but deliciously. Soft fingers against his bare arms.

"You don't have to stop anything," she told him and her face was pretty as a warm fall afternoon. "Teddy, I just wanne be here with you."

She took another swig of her beer and put it down on the coffee table. Teddy tried to do the same, but he choked on it and patted his chest heavily to down it all.

"Tell you what," she said as though she was announcing the most thrilling of endeavors, "I’ll roll us a joint, you play your game, and we’ll just sit here together and chill. Alright?"

"… Yeah, that sounds nice."

He turned on Wind Waker again and wondered if he should have to switch it up for something more to her liking. Maybe she had come to hang at a place that wasn’t a crowded dorm or the apartment she shared with her four roommates. Maybe she just didn’t want to drink alone − Teddy had never let that bother him. Maybe her building didn’t allow smoking − neither did his, perhaps neither did any building around campus, yet that either, Teddy didn’t take into account. If nothing else, he had a knack for not letting the rules get to him.

"You’re so good at the game, Teddy," she told him after only a few minutes.

Without making him pause, she held up the joint to his mouth for him to take a drag from it and the contact of her fingers at his lips was much more inebriating than the smoke filling up his lungs. It was October and already cold in Hatchetfield, and Jenny was wearing woolen tights under her skirt that kept distracting him as he glanced down despite his best efforts at being casual. Perhaps he was simply not meant to act casual around women, around Jenny. She was dressed so lovely, yet his brain burned with desire of seeing her not dressed at all and he tried to focus on the game as best as he could. The temptation of her sitting here was far more torturous than when she was not with him at all.

"Isn’t it so romantic," she said with envy, "That Zelda and Link always find each other in every timeline?"

He coughed nervously. He had never really played the game for the romance. He had never done anything for romance at all, and romance had left him well alone in return. One could get used rather easily to being a pathetic loner. It was no wonder women didn’t want him. He wouldn’t have wanted himself either.

"I don’t think they get together in this one," he said. "Or in any other. That’s just not how their story goes."

He realized she was looking at him, smiling at him. Her elbow leaned against the back of the couch and she touched his shoulder lightly.

"Well, if it were up to me, I’d change a thing or two about that."

He stared dumbfounded till the screen suddenly lit up with his character dying in some stupid way from his distraction, and Jenny giggled and smoked a puff off her blunt which she blew back at him teasingly.

"So who are you gonna be for Halloween?" She asked him.

Had she sat so close from the start, or had she scooted closer without him noticing? But her knee was touching his now and Teddy’s palms were sweaty as he clutched the controller tight. She had kicked off her shoes and the sudden daydream came to him of a Jenny leisurely lounged across his lap, her feet in his palms if she would let him rub her worries away. He blinked.

"I, er… I didn’t plan anything. I was just gonna… stay here, I think."

"Birthday suit, then?" She asked and bit her lip to tame her own smirk − how fucking precious, how incredible, and Teddy looked away from her mouth to stop himself from doing anything stupid.

He did not know why it was that around Jenny, there kept happening these tiny moments in time where he caught onto a glimpse of hope. He kept hoping, but he was certain that it must be in vain. There were women like Jenny, kind and fun and compassionate and oh so pretty, and then there were the losers like him who pined after them. Two lines making their trajectory in time, never meant to intersect.

"We could dress together, if you want," she offered. "Couple’s costume or so. We’re having a party on the 31st at my place, were you gonna come?"

"I dunno if I’m really the kind of guy who gets invited to parties."

She seemed disappointed by this and turned back to watching the screen again, which Teddy thought was encouragement for him to play again. He took a sip of beer − it was delicious, better than the cheap stuff he bought. Everything Jenny did, always, like an advanced version of what a woman was supposed to be. He was putting the bottle back down when Jenny seized his hand.

"You’ve got such big hands," she said and flattened their palms together to compare sizes, then interlaced their fingers. "Look at how much bigger!"

The contact was electrifying and Teddy snatched his hand back like Jenny would burn it if she held it any longer. He tucked it beneath his thigh on the couch.

"Yeah, erm, I think I get that from my dad."

This was not what Jenny had hoped or expected him to say and she made no show of hiding it. Suddenly she scooted back from him on the couch and dropped the joint in the ashtray where it sat there smoking on its lonely own and Teddy stared as Jenny made to pack up her things.

"Wait, where’re you going?"

Jenny sniffed and rubbed her nose. Her hands were numb and she was struggling with her shoelaces.

"I don’t know," she said. "Back home."

"What? No, you… you gotta stay!"

Her face snapped back to glare at him and a twist of guilt ached him deep, though he did not know what he had done to upset her. Around Jenny, he never understood a thing at all. She was a mystery he was not meant to decipher.

"Teddy, it’s obvious you don’t care about me being here with you," she said. Her voice was shaking with emotion, but what emotion was that? And what compelled her to stay here when she could have spent her time with any other better guy? When she could have been with that Andy Kilgore she was dating.

He could not understand what had led her to believe he would not want her here. She was all he had ever wanted, all in a pretty blouse with her pretty lips and eyes and soft hair, and her witty manners, and Teddy wanted nothing more than for her to stay here forever and ever even if she never gave him what he craved.

" _Of course_ I do," he cried out. "Why would you even say that? I love having you around."

She rolled her eyes and he could see that, beyond exasperated, she was heartbroken. This confused him more than anything else so far and he dropped the controller to grab her hand and clasp it between his.

"Jenny, I love that you’re here with me."

"Yes, but not the way I wanna be _with_ you."

He frowned.

"What does that mean?"

She tore her hand from his. Her shoelaces dragged on the floor as she stepped away but Teddy bounced over the couch to bar her way to the door. His arms outstretched, he blocked it entirely.

"What the hell do you mean?!"

Jenny looked almost furious. He had never seen such expression on her and a part of him adored this, having expanded his catalogue of all the Jenny things there were to know, but he quickly lost that train of thought when she dropped her bag to the ground and seized him by the collar to kiss him. He was so startled it took him a moment to register it at all, much less respond. And how could one get used to the lovely way Jenny’s hands cupped his cheeks, how gentle she was with him but eager too, desperate to get him to kiss her back. He did − how could he not? If he died now, at least he would have lived for something, for those few seconds of Jenny in his arms.

She was the one who broke the kiss. A gasp and suddenly she tore herself from him and clasped a hand over her lips, like she couldn’t quite believe what they’d just done. Her cheeks were pink and she looked like she was panicking.

"Oh, shit."

She made to push past him but Teddy stopped her by the waist to pull her close again. Jenny’s eyes darted to the hands touching her, then back at him, and the blush at her cheeks was the most beautiful thing in the world. He had to say something, didn’t he? He had to explain himself one way or another, to let out those emotions that kept growing bigger and bigger every time he saw her, every time she talked to him. Those emotions that, if he was not mistaken, might not have been as unrequited as he had always, always thought.

He kissed her again. There was a soft sigh as Jenny melted into the kiss and pressed herself as close to him as she could. Her hair was soft at his fingers when he combed through, softer than he had even dreamed. He held her face, her cheeks, and kissed her as well as he could ever kiss anybody.

"Teddy…"

He had thought himself unlovable, even unlikeable, but in the mirror of Jenny’s eyes he now felt like the strongest, most interesting guy in the world. She passed a hand through his hair and pulled him for a quick peck at his lips.

"I wanna be with you," he said in a low voice − even now, he was feeling anxious. "I… I thought you’d never want someone like me…"

"But I wanna be with you too," she muttered back.

They kissed. This was allowed no, even _wanted_. He groaned at how comfortable Jenny was already, how easily she lost herself in the kiss. Her tongue pushed past his lips and he groaned even harder, and they took a few steps back towards the couch. There was no reason for her to leave any time soon.

"Teddy," she said. Her finger toyed with a curl of hair behind his ear. "Do you wanna smoke a bit and see how the night goes?"

He gulped. Already she was grabbing the blunt from the ashtray to offer it to him again. He switched off the TV and sat on the couch, pulling her to his lap which prompted a delighted fit of giggle.

"Yeah," he replied. "I’d love that."

There was no need for Jenny to go anywhere. She could stay here all night long if she wanted. Heck, she could stay here till Halloween and after. So long as she was right here in Ted’s embrace, she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

**Author's Note:**

> lmao fridging women for male pain and character development is like one of the most basic sexist tropes to steer clear from in the good year of our lord 2020 and yet our guys truly did it. I fucking loved Nightmare Time and I think they’re excellent writers but they sure are males. I don’t think they even realized they were playing RIGHT into this trope unironically. Jenny deserves better as a character and as a person than to be a plot device for Ted’s torture. Her pain should mean something for herself, not just for him. But thank you miss Kimberly Whalen for once more doing the absolute BEST of the script you were given. this is just dumb fluff for me to get over my pain.


End file.
